I haven’t seen this posted, so I figured I’d ask. The ’86 transformers movie took on a decidedly darker tone than its TV counterpart, with characters dying and entire planets being extinguished (Prowl’s death always weirded me out). I’ve always wondered, though, why there are a couple instances of light profanity. Most notably is when Spike and Bumblebee abandon Moon Base 1 and attempt to destroy/slow down Unicron by detonating it. When it fails, Spike says “Look, It isn’t even dented…oh shit, what are we going to do now.”

Why throw in the random profanity, and how’d they get away with it. If I’m not mistaken, “damn” pops up once or twice later on in the film. I’ve always loved the glorified toy commercial, but I’ve always been curious about this. Any thoughts?

They were going for a PG rating to hopefully have the movie play to an older audience, like college aged teens and older. In 1986, movies rated G were not normally played past the afternoon. A PG rating guaranteed later showtimes.